• x00z@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 days ago

    On the other hand, maybe our personal observation doesn’t just cause a waveform to collapse, but also collapses a logical path for said wave backwards into time. This would mean that even the results of the initial observation only collapse at the moment you look at them.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      So at what point in human evolution was one human conscious enough to have the first observation and therefore spring quantum mechanics into existence in the universe?

      • x00z@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        What if both human evolution and “other humans” follow the same unfolding? You’d create all of that in every moment. Even the memories and logistics needed for that. That would mean that there is only now and reality has been creating itself over and over again infinitely.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          19 hours ago

          So only scientists capable of observing create the entire universe from moment to moment? People who are extraordinarily stupid or just sleeping don’t independently exist?

          • x00z@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            18 hours ago

            Being aware is literally observing. So we could all be creating it as a whole. Or it could be pure solipsism, and the sense of self (or the ego) is split into 8 billion different pieces all unfolding reality around each other. Infinity allows this. It’s even possible that it’s pure solipsism and everybody else is in superposition and you unfold literal human lives as you go.

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              14 hours ago

              In physics, the word observation means an interaction. An observation in physics does not mean a human with an arbitrary level of intelligence.

      • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Obviously any living creature can become entangled with the quantum experiment if you build the right apparatus. Build a machine that kills a cat if an atom decays, and you’ve made cats into quantum observers. When the cat observes the experiment by not dying, it collapses from the cat’s point of view. When you observe the cat, it collapses from your point of view.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          19 hours ago

          When the cat observes the experiment by not dying, it collapses from the cat’s point of view.

          If an interaction occurs it collapses for all points of view. The geiger counter is the observer.